Papier-Mâché Marquee Letter

Papier-Mâché Marquee Letter

Take a cue from vintage movie theater marquees and put your name in "lights"—no wiring required. Use a craft knife to cut off the front of a papier-mâché letter ($4.99,joann.com), then paint it your desired color and let dry. Affix small gold Christmas ornaments (about 1" diameter) with hot glue. That's a wrap!

Papier-Mâché Marquee Letter

Take a cue from vintage movie theater marquees and put your name in "lights"—no wiring required. Use a craft knife to cut off the front of a papier-mâché letter ($4.99,joann.com), then paint it your desired color and let dry. Affix small gold Christmas ornaments (about 1" diameter) with hot glue. That's a wrap!

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Bleach-Splattered Chair

Making over plain cotton upholstery fabric requires nothing more than a household disinfectant and water. Working outside, and wearing protective eyewear and gloves, lay the desired yardage for your project flat on a sheet of plastic. In a measuring cup, mix together ½ cup bleach and ½ cup water. Use a plastic spoon to drib-ble the liquid all over the fabric. When you're satisfied with the pattern, let dry, then run the fabric through a regular cycle in your washer and dryer. Take it to a local upholsterer (we sent ours to tapemeasuredesign.com)—or use it however you'd like.

Alison Gootee/Studio D

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Matchbook Containers

These delightful little volumes (inspired by Heather Mann of dollarstorecrafts.com) throw the book at desktop clutter. To transform ordinary matchboxes into match-"book" containers, print all five dust-jacket images, sized to fit basic 300-count matchboxes, from www.countryliving.com/matchboxcovers. Cut out and adhere the covers and pages to your matchboxes using spray mount. Then fill 'em up with the items referenced on the spines, and shelve.

Miki Duisterhof

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Key Fobs

These charming accessories don't require any special tools to create. We simply gathered up four key rings and strung on: a brass cow tag, a plastic toy calf, a two-inch wooden printing block, and a couple vintage skeleton keys. A key ring can loop directly through the holes of the cow tag and skeleton keys; for the calf and printing block, just center and screw in a metal eye hook with your hands, then link the key ring through (key rings, $2.17 for 25; 1" diam.; eye hooks, 59 cents for 20; ⅝"; zorotools.com). For similar fobs, head to Michaels for the calf figurine ($2.99; michaels.com for stores), and search Etsy or eBay for tags, blocks, and keys (from $3 each).

Alison Gootee

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Trompe L'oeil Teapot

This witty set starts with plain ceramic dishes (for similar cup and saucer set, $4.99, and teapot, $9.89; englishteastore.com). To get the show on the road, freehand the tea bag, tag, and spoon designs, using our image as a guide, with Pebeo's Porcelaine fine-point marker ($4.82; dickblick.com). Don't worry if you make a mistake—the ink can be washed away for up to 72 hours. Allow at least 24 hours' drying time, then bake the items for 35 minutes in a 300°F oven. Let cool completely, and wash (the ink's dishwasher safe!) before brewing up a spot of Earl Grey.

Alison Gootee/Studio D

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Brass Arrow Earrings

The hunt for cool earrings ends here.

Invest in a jewelers' hole punch, and you can churn out these wildly fashionable danglers in seconds. Use the punch to create an opening in each brass arrow's feathered end, as shown. Then loop an earring wire through the hole and bend the wire shut with needle-nose pliers. Bull's-eye!

Ceramic Photo Coasters

Refocus plain ceramic tiles as snappy coasters.

Blogger Brittany Moser of darkroomanddearly.com made these Polaroid-inspired drink rests from color photos and square tiles (a steal at 15 cents apiece). First, trim a photo to 3 3/4"W x 3 1/4"H. Using a foam brush, spread Mod Podge on the back of the image; then position it on a tile, leaving a 1/4-inch border at the top and sides, and a 3/4-inch border at the bottom. Let dry for 30 minutes. Spread Mod Podge over the photo and exposed tile borders and let dry for one hour; repeat two to three more times. Spray with clear sealant and let dry for 24 hours. Finally, affix adhesive felt pads to the underside corners of your picture-perfect tiles.

Book Box for Remote Control

Unlike Downton Abbey, your clunky clicker isn't exactly a must-see. So stash the eyesore in a book: You'll need one at least two inches longer and 1/4 inch deeper than your remote control.

Step 1: Open the book's back cover. Using a foam brush, coat the inside cover and facing page with school glue. Close the book and press down firmly for 10 seconds.

Step 2: Open the book's front cover. Coat the entire stack of pages—all three exposed sides—with school glue, taking care not to get any on the topmost page. Let dry for one hour; repeat. Close the book, weight it with a second book, and let dry overnight.

Step 3: Open the front cover, center your remote on the first page, and trace around it with a pencil, adding 1/4 inch all the way around. Set the remote aside. With an X-Acto knife, cut along the marked line, removing two to three pages at a time. Continue until your remote fits deeply inside.

Step 4: Cut a piece of ribbon that's half the length of your book plus five inches. Trim one end into a fork; dot hot glue on the opposite end, and affix it in the bottom-center of the hollowed-out area—this "bookmark" will lift out your neatly disguised device.

YOU HAVE: Old book School glue Remote control Pencil X-Acto knife Scissors Hot glue

Paint-Stick Lampshade

Those hardware-store stirrers can do more than just blend semigloss. Instead, use them to ring any cylindrical shade that's up to 14 inches tall.

Step 1: Measure the circumference of your shade to determine how many paint sticks you'll need. Each one is approximately 1"W, so for our 40"-circumference lampshade, we used 40 sticks.

Step 2: String up a length of twine with a drop cloth underneath. Dunk the unnotched end of one stick into a can of semigloss paint (we used Benjamin Moore's Cedar Grove). Secure the unpainted end to the twine with a clothespin. Repeat with remaining sticks, varying the heights of the paint lines. Let dry for four hours.

Step 3: Place your lampshade upside down on a flat surface. Apply a line of hot glue along the length of one stick's back side, and adhere it to the lampshade, placing the notched handle end flush against the top edge (the ends of the sticks may extend past your shade's bottom edge). Repeat with remaining sticks, placing them side by side until the lampshade is covered. Finally, flip it over and position your shade on a pendant- or table-lamp base to really brighten a room.